Saturday, March 2, 2013

Of sexual assault and gifts from God

I don't pay a lot of attention to comments on this blog (because I get almost none!), but in glancing over my stats the other day, I noticed this post (commenting on Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock's suggestion that babies resulting from rape were a gift from God) had a response:

Two of our seven adopted children were conceived by sexual assault. Both are girls. They are vibrant, physically active, wonders of love and adventure. I have no problem with the concept that while satan used the assault to destroy lives, Jesus took that circumstance and will use these individuals to change the world. They have certainly made our world richer by far. To think that many people would advocate for their deaths because of how they began is profoundly sad to me.
Good luck on your journey.I'm not aware of anyone trying to pass a law stating that victims of sexual assault must have abortions, so I think it's a vast overstatement to say that pro-choice advocates are "advocating for death." The fact that your daughters were born shows that people do make varied choices. But I'm a mother myself, and the thought of my daughters undergoing the trauma of sexual assault is dreadful enough. To think that they might be forced to carry a fetus to term after sexual assault, whether they want to or not, is simply horrifying. This should be a personal choice for every woman. Simply because you think Jesus "will use these individuals to change the world" is not a sufficient reason for my daughters (who don't believe in Jesus anyway) to be compelled to carry a pregnancy to term. It's also a good reminder of why religion has no business mixing it up with politics. One religion shouldn't have the power to shape the laws of a secular nation.

In any event, if one believes Jesus can "change the world" this way, then why can't he change the world to prevent sexual assault? Either Jesus and God have control over the world, or they don't. The idea that the bad stuff is all due to Satan/the Garden of Eden/bad human choices, while the good stuff can all be attributed to God, always strikes me as a copout. It's confirmation bias at its finest.